Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 245, 246, 247, 252, 253, 258 and 259. We have been asked to lay these two groups of probing amendments by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, on behalf of some of the awarding bodies, to probe what opportunity they will have to be involved in the work of the regulator and make the valuable contribution that they are willing and able to make. They have substantial expertise and practical knowledge and they welcome the collaborative approach already demonstrated by Ofqual. However, our first group of amendments refers to the fact that they would like to see in the Bill a requirement that that they be consulted where appropriate so that they can continue to make that contribution. Amendment 239 would require Ofqual to have regard to information provided by awarding bodies. Amendment 247 is a similar amendment, requiring Ofqual to consult awarding bodies before setting or revising general conditions of recognition. Amendment 253 would require Ofqual to consult awarding bodies before setting or revising the criteria for accreditation. Amendment 258 would require similar consultation when setting or revising criteria for a number of hours of guided learning. It is also essential that the awarding bodies are treated fairly. Another set of amendments in this group tries to ensure that. Amendment 245 would require that, if Ofqual refused an application for recognition, it must provide the awarding body with a statement setting out the reasons for its decision—in other words, a kind of feedback. Apart from the desirability of this in the interests of transparency, which is very important, it seems only fair, since the financial consequences of such a refusal to an awarding body may be great. It would give it the opportunity to have its views heard and to rectify the problem and come back later. Amendment 246 relates to Clause 130, about how Ofqual sets the criteria for recognition. Subsection (5) states that Ofqual must consult, ""such persons as it considers appropriate"." It seems unlikely that it would not consider awarding bodies as appropriate, but, just to be sure, we are proposing this amendment. Amendment 252 asks for a review of a decision to refuse accreditation if the applicant requests it. It may be that additional information that could be provided by the awarding body to Ofqual would change the picture completely. The ability to ask for a review would make sense. Amendment 259 is the last of our amendments in this group. It would replace Clause 143 with a different clause, relating to the review of the activities of recognised awarding bodies. The change that we have proposed would ensure that such activities were only those that directly and materially impacted on the fair operation of the qualification system or the credibility of the awarding body. It seems to me that these are the only activities that Ofqual has any business to look into. Clause 143 refers to "connected activities". What does this mean? Does it include only activities carried out in the UK, or would Ofqual want to look at activities carried out in other parts of the world, because many of the bodies operate not just in this country but elsewhere? I hope that the Minister can give me some answers to those questions. I beg to move.